The Wheel of Time Casting Call, Tier 3, Part 2

Here is part two of my The Wheel of Time Casting Call. I forgot Amathera last week, so she’s first, and then we’re on to the B’s. For all the you could possibly ever hope to read (and plenty I’m sure you don’t care about) in regards to how I’m doing things here, please refer to the Part One as well as the Introductory Post, where I go on in endless detail about why I think what I think when I think it. And if nothing further needs saying (which, let’s face it, is true), we shall move on to the casting now.

Amathera
Amathera, the Panarch of Tanchico, who became just ‘Thera’ once the Seanchan took over, is Julian Sanders’ love interest. She is described as being well short of her middle years, lovely, and having a ‘pouty mouth’ and dark hair. So we’re needing someone not into her middle years, considered to be attractive, dark hair, and pouty lips/mouth. I’m going to put someone up that people have a tendency not to like…

Liv Tyler is, for the most part, all of those things above. And she’s really not that bad of an actress, despite the rep she’s got from a couple of bad movies. Many will know her as Arwen, from The Lord of the Rings movies of course, but she’s been in other movies as well, and I feel she tends to hold her own pretty well.

Bain
Bain, one of the Aiel ladies who follows Faile around forever, and become part of the love circle that Gaul so humorously participates in. She’s never really given a lot of description, except that she has ‘fiery hair,’ and dark blue eyes. And she is the taller of her and Chiad. We have no true indication one way or the other about her age, but I can probably be assumed she’s relatively young.

Laura Prepon is a beautiful young actress who fits pretty close to the criteria. It is going to become very hard to cast all the Aiel women at proper heights, since there just aren’t that many extremely tall actresses in Hollywood, but I think height (for some characters) can be sacrificed for acting chops and general looks. Prepon doesn’t always have ‘fiery’ hair, but she often does, so I think that works for her.

Places you’ve possibly seen her:
That 70’s Show
Various Other TV Shows

Bair
Bair is one of the oldest Wise Ones of our ‘main’ character Aiel, and is almost always described as wrinkly, leathery, grandmotherly, or all three. She needs to be powerful (as all the Aiel do), and needs to have a pretty strong presence.

Vanessa Redgrave has been, for the years I’ve been watching TV and movies, ‘the grandmother’ in countless shows and films. I remember her from several TV shows and movies, and always think, “Hey, it’s that woman who always plays the grandmother.” I think she’ll do a fine job as Bair. Plus, she’s already been in one movie called The Gathering Storm, so it’s like it’s destiny or something.

Basel Gill
The innkeeper and owner of ‘The Queen’s Blessing,’ friend of Thom Merrilin, and general all-around ‘good guy,’ Basel Gill is the ‘trustworthy’ type of innkeeper – that is, he’s fat and jolly. He is described as having a pink face and being very round, and having a pleasant smile.

There are a few good portly actors still around, but not all of them fit the ‘pink’ face-ness of Mr. Gill. Paul Sorvino is one who does. He often plays lawyers and gangsters, but I think he would be able to pull off the friendly innkeeper pretty well.

Bayle Domon
The Illianer captain of the Spray who inadvertently saves Rand, Mat, and Thom’s lives in The Eye of the World has taken on a bit of a larger role in the later series. Though he is not by any means a main character, he is around often, and is attached to Egeanin. He is a large man, muscular and wide, and do be ‘as big as a bear,’ according to Nynaeve.

I think the first time I ever saw Robbie Coltrane was in Goldeneye – the movie itself was pretty terrible (as were most of the Brosnan-era Bond movies), but Sean Bean and Robbie were two ‘lights upon the darkness’ in the movies. He’s a big fellow, and very wide, and I think would do well as our crazy-talkin’ Illianer.

Places you’ve possibly seen him:
Harry Potter (duh)
Goldeneye
The World is Not Enough

Berelain sur Paendrag
The beautiful ‘First of Mayene,’ I knew all along Berelain would be of the characters toughest to cast – not because, like Our Heroes or the SuperGirls, she is so important, but rather because she has a very strict criteria as ‘one of the most beautiful women in the world,’ and that can be something difficult to be objective about. Lanfear will be the same way, but I’ve known who would Lanfear since I started this project in my head.

2011/01/13 – I am leaving this here, but Anne Hathaway is no longer my choice for Berelain. See Post 3 for more info.
Anne Hathaway fits all of the criteria for Berelain. She is ‘pale,’ she is ‘dark haired,’ and she is beautiful. I think many would have a hard time honestly trying to say she was not those three things (even as subjective as ‘beauty’ is), but on top of all that, she’s a really fine actress. I don’t have any doubts that she could pull off Berelain with ease.

Places you’ve possibly seen her:
Get Smart (the new one)
The Princess Diaries
Brokeback Mountain

Beslan
The son of (the late) Tylin, Beslan is first introduced as a bit of a nuisance – one of those ‘why won’t you just leave Mat alone??’ characters (of which there are many). He eventually comes into his own, after the unfortunate demise of Tylin, and right in time to be not-so-much-into-his-own-because-of-the-Seanchan. He is dark haired, young, and has ‘beautiful black eyes.’

I cannot think of too many actors with ‘black eyes,’ but as far as young, dark-haired, and pretty good looking go, there are many. And Frodo wins this one. Elijah Wood, who I never really cared for until he became Mr. Baggins, (and who also played a pretty awesomely horrifying villain in Sin City) has come into his own well in recent years – just like Beslan (should have). He’ll make a good queen’s son.

By the way, with as much fame as Elijah got from the LotR, it’s amazing how hard it is to find decent pictures of him.

Places you’ve possibly seen him:
Lord of the Rings movies
The Good Son
Sin City

Birgitte
Birgitte Silverbow is the heroine of many hundreds of gleemen’s tales and legends. She is also now Elayne’s Warder, after having been ripped out of Tel’aran’rhiod by Moghedien. She has long, golden hair, and sharp blue eyes, and is supposed to be relatively tall.

Ali Larter, who you probably know from Heroes looks almost exactly how I picture Birgitte. She’s pretty, with ‘golden’ hair, tall, and has a warrior-like build to her. And she already knows how to do the action role, so no extra training required to look like she’s battle-hardened. The picture above is presumably captured from her time spent with Valan Luca and the circus.

There goes Part Two of the Tier 3/4 categories. Next time (probably after Christmas), we’ll do Caroline Damodred up through Darlin Sisnera. I hope you’re finding this interesting, and please comment if you have any suggestions, or just want to ask more details about why/how I chose various actors.

Yeah, Berelain/Hathaway is one of the toughest ones I had to do – the main issue is that I think the actress needs to be mature-ish, not one of these teeny-bopper actresses that is ‘smokin hot,’ but doesn’t really have the chops. Of course, as I mentioned, I knew this would be one that had disagreement, and I imagine the Galad one will as well, and probably Lanfear and Graendal – any of these characters who are too good-looking for their own good are going to have a lot of different opinions about how they should look. I may throw out a couple other actresses for here (as an addendum) once I’m done with the main list.

Except for Anne Hathaway as Berelain (which you changed anyway), this set is almost perfect! Liv Tyler would make a great Thera and looks just right with Eli Roth as Juilin. I like Bain, Bair, Gill and Beslan but your best casting is Ali Larter as Birgitte. This is exactly how I see her when I read about her.